


Adoring Every Move (Now My Rank Is Sinking)

by like_theletter



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: (maybe), Aftermath of Torture, Blood, Depends On The Day, Gen, Humor, Hurt No Comfort, Implied Depression & PTSD, Injury, Listen Steven's Either Good At Lying Or He Super Isn't, Mind Control, Rollercoasters, SU Time Travel Au, Self-Hatred, Shattering Gems, Time Travel, Vomiting, courtesy of flynnaw00, depending on how you look at it, in a spicy variety of ways, like... a lot, negative self-talk, …obviously
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:47:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22182058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/like_theletter/pseuds/like_theletter
Summary: (But We're Both Guilty of Black and White Thinking.)Oneshots for @flynnaw00's time travel au! Including but not limited to: Steven has an existential crisis and Twoie gets his ass kicked!Title from Monster by dodie.
Relationships: Pearl & Steven Universe, Steven Universe & Steven Universe
Comments: 36
Kudos: 180





	1. I Can Tell I've Rotted in Your Brain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flynnaw00](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flynnaw00/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Into the Universe](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22139770) by [flynnaw00](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flynnaw00/pseuds/flynnaw00). 



> All credit for creation of AU goes to the wonderful @flynnaw00, if you haven't noticed already.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Twoie has a run in with mind control and it... doesn’t go great. Steven accumulates more trauma.

“T- _ Twoie _ ?” Steven’s voice breaks.

Twoie whips around, eyes wide. His hands are bleeding, impaled with shards of gem, and there’s a sickening flush to his cheeks. He’s sweating. 

“Shit, you…” Twoie coughs out something vaguely resembling a pained laugh, and it’s then that Steven notices the growing red patch on his side, “ _ Ha,  _ you weren’t supposed to see that.” 

“You just- you just  _ shattered _ that gem.” Steven tries to swallow the lump in his throat.

In lieu of a response, Twoie wipes some of the sweat from his forehead, smearing blood above his brow. There’s a strange fractured quality to his gaze, as if he’s not all there, but it might just be Steven hoping  _ desperately  _ that he didn’t just murder someone. 

“What- who,” Steven can feel the tears welling up, hot and thick, “-Who  _ was _ that?”

“It doesn’t  _ matter _ .” A faint, dazed smile plays across Twoie’s lips. Steven is going to be sick. “You’re  _ safe. _ Aw, don’t cry- here-” Twoie limps over to Steven as the tears spill over and, with no small effort, tugs Steven to his chest. Steven can smell the blood coming from his wound.

As Steven chokes on his horror, his disgust, Twoie cards a hand through his sweaty hair and shushes him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> do i know what’s going on here? absolutely not. will i figure it out if y’all are interested? definitely.


	2. Tell Me Again, About How It Hurts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Twoie comes back after a long vacation. Pearl wants to know how it went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahaha it was not a vacation

Pearl told Steven she would stop watching him sleep, and she has, really. It’s just that this supposed Steven From The Future, or “Twoie,” as Steven calls him, has been gone for two weeks now. Steven’s been sick with worry, and his fitful sleep has triggered Pearl’s maternal desire to protect him in all hours of the day and night. She’s taken to sitting on the couch and reading, where she can still hear his steady breathing but can claim innocence if he were to wake up and catch her.

Pearl hopes Future Steven is coming back. It’s not that she trusts him, or believes he’s really Steven from the future (part of her just hopes desperately that Steven doesn’t grow up to be that guarded and broken and  _ tired _ ), but Steven has clung to him, and Pearl is sure if he were to be gone forever, Steven would be absolutely crushed. So he should come back.

This is what she’s thinking when the warp pad activates. Pearl turns her head so fast it would make her dizzy were she human, because it is 4:23 in the morning and everyone who is supposed to be in the temple is in the temple. So  _ who _ is-

Oh.

Future Steven takes two steps off the warp and collapses, clutching his side. Pearl is paralyzed with shock. Even as he struggles to stand, she can only stare at him. Finally, Future Steven, with the help of the counter, reaches an approximation of a standing position and gives her a stiff, trembling nod. “Pearl.”

It’s then that she notices the sheen of sweat on his sickly pale face, the limp and tangled hair, the horribly dark bags under his eyes, the lost weight and cradling of his left wrist. The dullness of his gaze. It snaps her back into action.

This boy may not be  _ her _ Steven, but he is still Steven and he is hurting and he needs her help. As she holds his arm to steady him, Pearl thinks of all the questions she could ask- where were you, what happened, are you okay, who did this to you, where can i find them- but what comes out of her mouth is, “Why haven’t you healed yourself yet?”

Even grievously injured, this Steven is still such a  _ teenager.  _ He rolls his eyes. “I didn’t have time. I needed to get somewhere safe before- to heal myself, I mean.” This Steven pointedly licks his hand and touches it to the wound on his side, relaxing as the pain ebbs, before pressing a kiss to his wrist in a similar fashion. “See? Good as new.”

Silence.

“Where  _ were _ you?”  _ Now _ it’s all coming out. “What happened? Are you okay? Who-” 

“I can’t tell you, nothing, and I’m fine.” Steven drags a hand over his face. “I’m just going to eat something and go to bed. It’s been a long couple of weeks.” He moves to leave, but is stopped by the hand Pearl has clamped on his arm. “Um. Pearl. I kind of need my arm.”

“Nothing?” whispers Pearl harshly. “This isn’t  _ nothing,  _ Steven!” She has never referred to him by name before, but it just slips out. “You come here, badly wounded, starved, sleep deprived and sick, after two weeks of no contact whatsoever, and claim  _ nothing  _ happened to you?” He won’t look at her. “What. Happened.”

Steven tugs on his arm, but he’s weak. Too weak. “I really can’t tell you. It would mess everything up.”

“Wha-  _ Steven! _ ” Pearl is indignant. “If you’re in danger, we need to know what happened. Don’t you trust us? Don’t you trust  _ me _ ?”

“Do  _ you _ trust  _ me _ ?” Steven glares at her, and Pearl realizes that he  _ knows.  _

All of their covert efforts to find out what his real intentions were, every time they kept a wary eye on him with Steven- he knew the whole time. And he just... took it. He could have called them out at any time and they’d have been helpless to defend themselves, but he must have seen that confronting them would disrupt the family dynamic. The guilt that follows that revelation nearly bowls her over. 

Pearl swallows thickly, trying to fill the weighted silence with something, anything, something to excuse them- something to excuse herself. Nothing comes out. Her grip loosens.

Steven wrenches his arm away and grasps his opposing arm nervously. A couple paces from the door, he stops. “Look, I…” He turns back to her, but doesn’t meet her eyes, instead choosing to look up at his younger self sleeping fitfully up the stairs. “I get it. I- I wouldn’t trust me either. It’s not the- not the worst thing to happen to me by far, ha-” he grips his gemstone through his shirt- “but…”

Looking a thousand years old, Steven faces her, finally. “Just know that everything I do is to keep him safe. I’m just trying to- I want- I can’t let him make the same mistakes I did, okay? I just want him to be safe.” 

Pearl finds herself nodding. “Me too.”

With that, a bittersweet smile flickers across Steven’s face. “I know,” he says. “Goodnight.”

And then he’s gone. 


	3. So Maybe I'll Talk To You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven and Twoie go out for the day, and Twoie thinks about his goals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is a lot lighter and funnier than the other two but don't worry, the angst will return >:3
> 
> next chap is probably gonna be a continuation of this but taking a sadder turn 
> 
> ALSO i would like to thank y'all for all your INCREDIBLY KIND comments on the past two chapters, you guys are the reason i wake up in the morning :')
> 
> also also i'm sorry all of these are short but i'm more focused on getting stuff out there than making super long-form pieces if that makes sense? future chapters may continue a previous storyline or be something new. there r no rules. i'm just vibing

“Twoie! Twoie! Twoie!” Steven punctuates each shout with a little hop of joy. Twoie winces and resists the urge to tell him not to do that on the stairs. He could easily fall, and Twoie genuinely can’t remember if he has his floating powers at this point.

“You don’t have to yell, Steven, I’m right here.”

“Sorry, I’m just excited!” His grin is blinding and it stings a little bit.  _ Don’t apologize  _ is on the tip of Twoie’s tongue, but Steven’s talking again before he can finish the thought. “Funland is having this new special- um, anyway, we  _ have _ to go!” 

“Sure,” is out of Twoie’s mouth before he’s really aware of it, and the fact that it’s a  _ colossally bad idea. _ Running into people from town when he looks practically identical to Steven? A very bad idea. But the way Steven had cut himself off, the falter in his voice… Steven thinks he’s annoying him. That’s not good.  _ Note to self, _ thinks Twoie:  _ Be more encouraging.  _ “That’s a great idea, Steven.”

Steven glows under the praise, which makes Twoie cringe internally. He’s doing a terrible job of fixing things.  _ Note to self: Be more supportive.  _

Thank  _ god _ the Gems aren’t here. Twoie is pretty sure they barely trust him being alone with Steven, let  _ alone  _ them leaving the house together. It could have been pretty hilarious to him, actually, the way they keep thinking they’re being subtle. It makes him wonder if he really  _ was  _ that oblivious as a kid- is Steven truly missing the  _ heavily broadcasted  _ mistrust ricocheting around the house when Twoie stays there? Or is he shoving down his feelings to keep the peace? Twoie doesn’t  _ remember _ , and asking could ruin everything. So he lets Steven drag him by the hand down the boardwalk, and says nothing.

The first issue they run into: Rollercoasters, in general. Twoie looks dubiously at the ride he kind of vaguely remembers loving as a kid. That was then. This is now, when he gets very carsick and is known to occasionally vomit in the middle of the night for no reason. Well,  _ he  _ knows that. “Um, I’m not sure about this, Steven.”

Steven honest-to-god pouts. “But…” He looks down at his feet and oh, fuck, Twoie can feel his heart breaking. “W-well, it’s okay, you don't have to-”

“I’ll go!” Twoie, you are so stupid. So fucking stupid.  _ Note to self: Be less stupid.  _

But Steven beams so brightly Twoie wishes he’d brought sunglasses, and bounces on the balls of his feet in excitement, so it’s worth the five full minutes Twoie spends discreetly vomiting in the public bathroom which, gross. Steven doesn’t know, so it’s fine. It’s fine. 

The second issue they run into: Sadie. Well, it’s not nice to call her an issue, but… for the admittedly fucky circumstances of their particular situation, she definitely is an issue.

“Hi, Steven!” she says brightly when they pass her. After a beat, she turns back around. “And… Steven?”

“Oh, Sadie!” Steven drags Twoie by the hand over to her. This is not good. “You  _ have  _ to see this! This is-”

“His brother! Hi, I’m Steven’s older brother- um…” Twoie freezes. “S-Steve.” 

“Pretty similar names, huh?” says Sadie, just shy of suspicious.

“Um, our dad was… not very... creative. When it came to naming children. His children. Yeah.”

_ Note to self: Be better at lying, you stupid fucking dumbass.  _

One look down at Steven and, yep, he’s shaking with barely-suppressed laughter. Yep, now he’s being mocked by his 13-year-old self. That’s just great. Really excellent. Twoie can lie flawlessly about his rapidly deteriorating mental health, but not some simple time-travelling? That’s nothing. He must be losing his edge.

“Well, see you! Oh, Steven, you might want to stop by later. We have some ideas for this new donut, and-”

“New donut?” Steven gasps, starry-eyed. “Say no more!” 

Sadie chuckles and waves goodbye. “And, uh, bring your… brother.” Twoie doesn’t miss the Look she shoots his way. He’s not sure what it means, but he decides he doesn’t like it.

“Wow!” Steven chirps. “That was weird!”

“Sure was, kiddo.”


End file.
